A blog about homebrewing and craft beer in South Africa

Rooibos beer – the taste of Africa

I am a little surprised and somewhat disappointed that there is no Rooibos beer from South Africa. Please let me know if I am mistaken. When I says Rooibos beer I mean beer with Rooibos as a spice. Well to be honest there are not many Rooibos beer anywhere. The only commercial beer I have found is Blanche au Thé Rouge Rooibos from Brasseur de Montréal in Canada. I know that the craft beer industry in South Africa is just in its early stage but I do hope that they will discover the Rooibos flavour. It is not only locally produced but also really good.

If you want to brew a commercial, yet high-quality beer I think this is the deal. What could be better than to spice up the craft beer with some good local flavor.

As a homebrewer you can always brew a Rooibos beer. Commercial or not. Rooibos contains no caffeine and has low tannin content. That makes it really versatile. Ad 0,3 dl per litre in the last minutes of the boil or just after the boil. This would give the beer some good Rooibos flavour.

I would love to ad Rooibos Lager, Rooibos Ale, Roobios Stout and Rooibos Saison as new beer styles in a couple of years. The taste of Africa.

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hi guys! i’ve brewed a Rooibos & Roasted Oat Malt Ale that I served at the BACKYARD BREW competition at the Bioscope Independent Cinema (JHB) this week. It got a bit of a Marmite response from the punters, but there were a couple of converts! I actually mash into rooibos tea instead of adding the rooibos later, but I’m going to give that method a try too.

Hi!
Since Rooibos contains low levels of tannins it is possible to add it to the mash without geeting high level of bitterness from it. You could also get some nice phenolic taste and aromas from it. It is difficult to control the amount of Rooibos to add though and you just have to try until you get it right.
I usually make a Rooibos te and mix that in just before bottling.